The background of, and the problems solved by, this invention can be most conveniently illustrated through the use of examples.
For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional gaming scenario where a group of users, physically located in a room, play a multi-player game using terminals 1A via a local access technology such as a wireless Bluetooth™ network 2. The terminals 1A may be mobile terminals, such as cellular telephones or gaming devices per se, and their users are referred to herein for convenience also as originating users. In addition to the physically present players another, remotely located player having a terminal 1B, also referred to herein for convenience as a correspondent user, may wish to participate in the game through another access technology, such as a cellular link made through a cellular network 3, via one of terminals 1A′ of the local game participants.
A problem that arises is that the game participant associated with terminal 1A′, also referred to herein for convenience as a bridging user, is providing the use of his or her cellular link 3 for a common purpose, i.e., the connection to the game server or a point-to-point connection to the remote participant 1B. Typically, the mobile terminal 1A′ functions as a bridge or router between the Bluetooth local network 2 and the cellular network 3. In most cases the usage of the cellular link 3 results in charging the cellular account of the bridging user, while the other game participants (the originating users) are not charged for the usage of the cellular link 3, even though they are also using the link 3. For example, the terminals 1A may all be sending data packets through the bridging terminal 1A′, via the Bluetooth access network 2, to the remote participant 1B, or when contacting a remote game server (not shown) through the Internet. Hence, there is likely to be a lack of incentive for the user of the bridging terminal 1 A′ to provide the other users access to his or her cellular link 3 for the purpose of gaming, without having the other participants charged appropriately.
As a further example, consider a user with a laptop computer who wishes to connect when in a public place to the Internet. Assume that the user's laptop does not provide cellular access, that there is no hotspot available in order to use a wireless local area network (WLAN), but that the laptop computer does have a Bluetooth interface providing Bluetooth access.
In this case the user's laptop may connect via the Bluetooth interface to the mobile terminal of some nearby user, such as by using conventional Bluetooth service discovery procedures in order to connect to an appropriate mobile terminal. The nearby user's mobile terminal's cellular connectivity is then used, possibly unbeknownst to the nearby user, to route the laptop's packets appropriately to the Internet (assuming that an IP profile for Bluetooth is present). However, since the cellular link of the nearby bridging mobile station is used, this user's cellular account would be charged for the services that are actually consumed by the laptop user, who may be unknown to the bridging mobile station user.
In addition to the aforementioned problems related to the charging the bridging user's cellular account, a further problem arises in the context of the use of resources. That is, the use of the cellular link 3 not only adds costs to the bridging user's cellular account, but also consumes mobile station resources, most importantly the battery power of the mobile station of the bridging user. Other resources that can be consumed include the decoding functionality of the mobile station, as well as connectivity to certain peripherals. The result is that a first mobile station is caused to function, perhaps unwittingly, as a service provider for a second mobile station whose user may be totally unknown to the user of the first mobile station. This situation may be referred to generally as ad-hoc service provisioning. One result of providing ad-hoc service provisioning is that there may be a desire of the bridging mobile station user to also charge for the consumption of the mobile station's resources, in addition for the cellular connectivity costs.
In U.S. Published Patent application Ser. No.: US 2002/0071416, Jun. 13, 2002, “Ad Hoc Wide area Network Access Method and System”, G. Carlson et al. describe a method and system for providing a non-connected wireless device with access to a wide area network through a wireless device having a connection facility such as a wireless connection provider or a wireless portal. The non-connected wireless device first employs a short-range wireless communication link to negotiate with at least one wireless connection provider for connection services. Once the non-connected wireless device has selected a particular connection provider, the connection provider provides access to the wide area network resource through the connection facility and measures the usage. The wireless connection provider then bills the non-connected wireless device for the provided connection services, and the non-connected wireless device provides payment information to the wireless connection provider for enabling payment.
The foregoing technique appears to assume that a trusted relationship exists between the originating user and the bridging user. However, in many cases this will not be the case, and in fact the bridging user may be unaware that his mobile terminal is providing a bridging service for another, possibly unknown user.